We Southerners, both those of European descent and those of African descent, have such a rich heritage. We are renown for our Southern hospitality. We make the best goddamned cornbread to ever grace a plate. Our ghost stories and haunted legends have been handed down in our families for generations. Many of our families practice photographing our dearly departed in their caskets (I've been told by Northerners that this is just weird and creepy!) We come together when tragedy befalls a family in our community or our community, as a whole. We take a covered dish to a family that lost a loved one. We take a plate to the elderly shut-in widow next door after a cook out or holiday dinner. We love our county fairs. Our heritage includes music, fishing, hunting, our great Southern cooking, family reunions, recording family histories in the family bible, respecting our elders, our lyrical accent, the way we turn a phrase, and setting city folks up for a "snipe hunting" trip. Our heritage includes the kind, the benevolent, the comical and the quirky. Southern heritage belongs to black Southerners as well as white Southerners. I could write an encyclopedia about our Southern heritage and never say a damned word about that flag.
Many years ago, before I got a few more years of wisdom under my belt, but still old enough that I should have known better, I had been a "heritage not hatred" proponent. In the process of the exchange of ideas with the people I met on the internet, I came to realize just how hurtful that battle flag is to my brothers and sisters of color. Not only was it symbolic of a war to keep them enslaved as livestock, but the stubborn refusal of the "heritage not hatred" camp to give validation to that pain, because doing so would mean the flag had to go, screamed "We don't care how it makes you feel. How WE feel is more important." For the role that I, at one time, played in that, I am deeply, sincerely sorry and ask forgiveness for my stupidity at that time. The fact that I bore no hatred is not an excuse for my insensitivity.
I think that this tragic racist, terrorist attack on nine innocent people in Charleston, SC, and the aftermath in its wake, have changed many more hearts, including many in the "heritage not hatred" camp. The fact that this flag was resurrected from the dustbin of history during the 1960s, in defiant response to the Civil Rights Movement, desegregation, and the Supreme Court taking action on Jim Crow laws all over the South was brought to the awareness of those of us who were too young to know this. The shedding of light upon the hateful words of the man who designed the flag, which made it clear that the symbolism of the flag was intended to represent the South's belief that the slaves were an "inferior race" and that the primary reason for establishing the Confederacy was to ensure the continued enslavement of those of African descent and a continuing system of White Supremacy, was also brought to our attention and could not be ignored or explained away.
The fact is that, in large part, the South continued to openly practice systems of both Apartheid and economic slavery, by way of the enactment of Jim Crow laws, laws that enabled slavery through peonage, and laws designed to disenfranchise black voters, right up to the 1960s, when federal rulings invalidated those laws and criminalized those practices in response to those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, many of which, both black and white, gave their lives in the fight for justice and civil rights. It was in response to that righteous endeavor that this hateful flag was brought out of museums and planted atop state houses and hoisted at KKK rallies in a symbolic "fuck you" to people of color and those who supported them in their fight for equality. And that, my friends, is essentially what that flag continues to say.
I would ask any who still support "heritage not hatred" to consider my words, digest the facts that have been brought forward recently and re-examine their heart before continuing to support this hateful flag or dismiss the feelings of the descendants of those who suffered under that brutal system of complete oppression. Being able to accept new information that challenges your previously held beliefs is the hallmark of a truly open mind that is capable of further growth. Being able to admit when one is wrong is one of the hallmarks of a good character. Were it up to me today, it would be marched right past the dustbin to the nearest trash can. It's history. It's ugly and disgusting history. That one war is part of our history. Our heritage is not that one war...and our heritage is not that flag.
Many years ago, before I got a few more years of wisdom under my belt, but still old enough that I should have known better, I had been a "heritage not hatred" proponent. In the process of the exchange of ideas with the people I met on the internet, I came to realize just how hurtful that battle flag is to my brothers and sisters of color. Not only was it symbolic of a war to keep them enslaved as livestock, but the stubborn refusal of the "heritage not hatred" camp to give validation to that pain, because doing so would mean the flag had to go, screamed "We don't care how it makes you feel. How WE feel is more important." For the role that I, at one time, played in that, I am deeply, sincerely sorry and ask forgiveness for my stupidity at that time. The fact that I bore no hatred is not an excuse for my insensitivity.
I think that this tragic racist, terrorist attack on nine innocent people in Charleston, SC, and the aftermath in its wake, have changed many more hearts, including many in the "heritage not hatred" camp. The fact that this flag was resurrected from the dustbin of history during the 1960s, in defiant response to the Civil Rights Movement, desegregation, and the Supreme Court taking action on Jim Crow laws all over the South was brought to the awareness of those of us who were too young to know this. The shedding of light upon the hateful words of the man who designed the flag, which made it clear that the symbolism of the flag was intended to represent the South's belief that the slaves were an "inferior race" and that the primary reason for establishing the Confederacy was to ensure the continued enslavement of those of African descent and a continuing system of White Supremacy, was also brought to our attention and could not be ignored or explained away.
The fact is that, in large part, the South continued to openly practice systems of both Apartheid and economic slavery, by way of the enactment of Jim Crow laws, laws that enabled slavery through peonage, and laws designed to disenfranchise black voters, right up to the 1960s, when federal rulings invalidated those laws and criminalized those practices in response to those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, many of which, both black and white, gave their lives in the fight for justice and civil rights. It was in response to that righteous endeavor that this hateful flag was brought out of museums and planted atop state houses and hoisted at KKK rallies in a symbolic "fuck you" to people of color and those who supported them in their fight for equality. And that, my friends, is essentially what that flag continues to say.
I would ask any who still support "heritage not hatred" to consider my words, digest the facts that have been brought forward recently and re-examine their heart before continuing to support this hateful flag or dismiss the feelings of the descendants of those who suffered under that brutal system of complete oppression. Being able to accept new information that challenges your previously held beliefs is the hallmark of a truly open mind that is capable of further growth. Being able to admit when one is wrong is one of the hallmarks of a good character. Were it up to me today, it would be marched right past the dustbin to the nearest trash can. It's history. It's ugly and disgusting history. That one war is part of our history. Our heritage is not that one war...and our heritage is not that flag.
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- Slavery Vs. Peonage
- Slavery Revisited: Peonage in the South
- Wikipedia article with info on peonage in the South
- The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, by PBS
- Civil Rights Movement
- Some of the many Martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement
- Desegregation - With All Deliberate Speed
- CNN - Confederate Battle Flag: Separating Myth from Fact
